July 29: "Exploding Chemicals And Burning Merchandise Light Up The Sky"

1953: Exploding chemicals and burning merchandise light up the sky downtown Kingston, as fire of an estimated damage of over £120,000 destroys Clearly & Elliot’s photo studio upstairs and Messrs Issa’s Budget Shopdownstairs, 89 King Street, spread north to Messrs R. Hanna and Sons’ Hub and threatened the Community Store. The fire is first observed by the watchman of the Budget Shop who saw a flame belching out of ventilators in the roof of Clearly and Elliot’s.

1955: Big plans are being made for the Kingston and St Andrew Celebrations of Jamaica 300, from December 18-31. In cooperation with the Jamaica 300 Working Committee, his worship the mayor has created an organisation which has now got down to the job of planning a full programme of activities for later this year. The first major event on the programme will be a contest to be conducted through the cinemas to choose a ‘Miss City of Kingston’. All the moving-picture theatres in Kingston are expected to take part, and the winners from each will vie for the proud title of Miss City of Kingston.

1958: The southern section of the Adastra Gardens Club, Rockfort, is destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at about £15,000. It is reported that a diesel electric stove in the kitchen went bad and set off a blaze. The fire brigade was summoned, and when a unit from the Rollington Town Station arrived at the scene, the southern section of the building was enveloped in flames. The men requisitioned reinforcement from York Park.

1959: A statement is given to The Gleaner, for publication by R. C. Marley, one of Jamaica’s representatives on the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. This statement was in view of Alexander Gilchrist, having published what he terms as his side of the story, which incidentally is a fragrant breach of his contract, and also in view of the spate of ill-conceived letters attacking him.

1968: Bus service in the Corporate Area resumes after three and a half days of strike action by the operational staff of the Jamaica Omnibus Services. The first JOS bus drove out of the company’s Industrial Terrace depot at 4:45 a.m., ending a brief period of tension caused by a number of workers urging continued defiance of union orders to resume. A police detachment stood by as the buses rolled out without incident.